John Light will join Olivier Award-winning actress Michelle Terry in the forthcoming Shakespeare’s Globe production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream when it opens at the alfresco venue next month.
Light, who returns to the Globe following his 2009 performance in A New World – A Life Of Thomas Paine, will take on the role of Titania’s wife and adversary Oberon alongside Terry as the Queen of the Fairies herself. The actor, whose Shakespearean performances include The Tempest and Julius Caesar for the RSC, has notched up stage credits elsewhere that include Apologia at the Bush theatre and The Night Season at the National Theatre, as well as on screen appearances in films including Dresden and The Lion In Winter.
Joining Light and Terry as the King and Queen of the Fairies are Olivia Ross (Hermia), Sarah MacRae (Helena), Joshua Silver (Demetrius) and Luke Thompson (Lysander).
Ross and MacRae both return to Shakespeare’s Globe following their performances in the Bankside venue’s 2012 season; Ross having appeared as Princess Katherine in the Jamie Parker-led production of Henry V and MacRae as sister to Samantha Spiro’s vicious Katherina in the Bard’s controversial comedy The Taming Of The Shrew.
Last seen on the London stage in Joe Wright’s production of Trelawny Of The Wells at the Donmar Warehouse, Silver is joined by Thompson, a fellow recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, to play the two rivals competing for Hermia’s affections.
Promising to explore the intense passions and antagonisms that lurk beneath the shimmering surface of the Bard’s popular comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays from 24 May to 12 October as part of Shakespeare’s Globe’s Season Of Plenty, which also sees three-time Olivier Award winner Roger Allam take to the stage as Prospero in The Tempest and Olivier Award-winning actress Eve Best direct Joseph Millson in the Bard’s dark and powerful tragedy Macbeth.